Love and Rivalry

Chapter 13

Friday night could not have come any faster for Aria. Fortunately, she worked late into the night, so she didn't have to worry too much about running into Riku. It seemed almost too good to be true that he would let her go without a fight, so she was constantly walking on eggshells waiting for him to renege his promise.

Aria left work on Friday at a reasonable time and headed home to grab her things before heading over to her temporary apartment. She didn't have much, mostly just clothes and a few keepsakes of her mother's. When she had gathered up all of her stuff from her room, she headed downstairs where her taxi was waiting. Thankfully Kaiba had advanced her first paycheck. She grumbled about it at first, but now she was glad she actually had some cash on her for once.

It seemed funny that all of her paychecks had to come in the form of bills, but because Riku controlled her bank accounts and she was still considered a minor, Aria couldn't open one of her own.

She paused in the foyer, looking over at Riku's study where the door was slightly ajar. Aria knew he didn't care if she said goodbye or not, but his words about her mother crawling back still rang in her head. She might never see him again after today, did she demand an explanation from him now about it?

Aria let out a breath, irritated that Riku could still keep some kind of hold on her. So what if he had said some disparagement about her mother? She knew her mother was an upstanding woman, was she going to let the words of a man who despised them change that? Aria tightened her grip on her bags then continued walking out the door, without looking back once.

Putting her luggage in the trunk of the taxi, Aria kept her focus on the yellow car. Climbing into the backseat, she couldn't relax until the driver pulled away, leaving behind the house that she had shared with Riku for the past five years. Shared even felt like too liberal of a word. Surviving seemed much more fitting.

Pulling up in front of a dingy looking three-story apartment complex, Aria raised her eyebrows at what her friends had rented. The evening sun cast a burning glow onto dirty windows and overfilled trash bins. The building was located just on the outskirts of the downtown core. By no means was the area considered part of the slums, but it was a huge step below from where Aria came from.

Having paid the cabbie, Aria grabbed her bags out of the trunk and walked up the cement walkway to the front doors. Looking for unit 28 on the intercom, Aria hit the button to buzz up. A short honk buzzed back at her indicating the door was unlocked. Aria rolled her eyes, making a note to talk to Joey about finding out who was at the door first before letting them up.

Entering into a dimly lit hallway, Aria looked around for a stairwell. There was no way this place was going to have an elevator. Spying one a little further down, Aria shuffled her load on her shoulders and was just thankful that she only had to climb up one flight of steps.

Reaching the second floor, the first door on Aria's left bore the number twenty-eight, or what was left of the number eight. It seemed the brass number had actually fallen off, leaving only the faded outline underneath. Laughing inwardly at the place her friends had gotten into, Aria gave two quick knocks on the door. In a few moments, she heard muffled footsteps approach the door.

There was a slight pause and then the door was quickly swung wide to reveal a beaming Téa. "You made it!" she exclaimed, stepping aside.

"Fortunately I wasn't mugged on my way up here," Aria responded teasingly, walking into the living room.

Téa laughed. "I know, it does seem a little rough, but I'm just glad we found something affordable. Three bedroom apartments are scarce in this town."

Aria dumped her bags in a heap on the floor, happy to be rid of the heavy load. Taking in the apartment, Aria saw that a galley kitchen sat to the left while the living and dining room combination were on her right. A hallway went down behind the kitchen where Aria assumed were the bedrooms and bathroom. She gave a small shudder. "I don't know how we are going to survive sharing a bathroom with those two boys."